Nikola Jokic has had an incredible NBA career thus far, but there’s a case to be made that it should have been even better. Jokic is in his 10th season in the NBA, and while he has won many major accolades in that time, the same cannot be said about his Denver Nuggets teammates.
Shockingly, Jokic is the only MVP in NBA history to have never had a teammate make an All-Star team, or an All-NBA team, or an All-Defensive team when they played with him. He hasn’t even seen a teammate of his win Rookie of the Year or lead the NBA in any significant statistical category.
Jokic has had teammates who won accolades before joining the Nuggets, like Russell Westbrook now, but never when they’ve been alongside him. It’s incredible, in the worst possible way, that the Nuggets have not been able to put one great player alongside him in all these years.
Now, you’d think that there’s no way Jamal Murray or Aaron Gordon have never made one of those teams in all this time, but they haven’t. Gordon hasn’t even come close to making the All-Star team, while the highest Murray ever finished in fan voting for Western Conference guards was 10th.
To be fair to both of them and Michael Porter Jr., they did step up when the Nuggets won it all in 2023. Murray, in particular, was terrific in that run, with averages of 26.1 points, 5.7 rebounds, 7.1 assists, 1.5 steals, and 0.3 blocks per game in the 2023 playoffs. He has never come close to duplicating that in the regular season, however.
This 2024-25 season has been one of the best of Murray’s career. The 28-year-old is averaging 21.6 points, 3.8 rebounds, 6.0 assists, 1.4 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game for the Nuggets, but those are certainly not All-Star numbers. As things stand, the chances of Murray ever making one of those teams in his career are slim.
So, this is what Jokic has had to work with, and to his credit, we’ve never heard him complain about it. The seven-time All-Star always takes responsibility when the Nuggets come up short, even though he’s really the only reason they’ve had success in recent years.
Jokic has been carrying the Nuggets for much of this season, too. He has put up 29.8 points, 12.8 rebounds, 10.2 assists, 1.8 steals, and 0.6 blocks per game in 2024-25. Despite Jokic’s heroics, the Nuggets have a solid but unspectacular 48-32 record. They are fourth in the West but could tumble down to the play-in spots if they don’t win their final two games.
The fact that Jokic has had a historic season and might still have to feature in a play-in game is an indictment of the Nuggets. They have certainly failed him, and you wonder if he will ask out in a year or so.
Paul Pierce wouldn’t be surprised if Jokic asks for a trade this summer. Pierce was extremely critical of the Nuggets for letting go of some key role players after winning the title and for firing head coach Michael Malone this late into the season. It is a chaotic situation right now, and it’s hard to see a scenario where this campaign doesn’t end up being a failed one for the Nuggets.
